Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-MillsYoushemia Phillips, 29, lowers her head as she talks about her daughter, Ya' Mesha Mitchell, outside of her home Monday afternoon. Ya' Mesha was one of two 6-year-olds who drowned Sunday in an abandoned swimming pool at 2508 Howden.MUSKEGON HEIGHTS — The families of two Edgewood Elementary School
students gathered Monday to grieve the tragic loss of a doting young
girl known as “Little Mama” and a gangly green-eyed boy who preferred
playing in dirt to video games, according to loved ones.

Both
6-year-old children, who were close friends, died some time before noon
on Mother’s Day after Torrey Day, of 2537 Wood, slipped in a partially
full, abandoned swimming pool located behind a vacant home at 2508
Howden, Muskegon Heights, and Ya’Mesha Mitchell drowned trying to save
him.

Ya'Mesha Mitchell and Torrey DayYa’Mesha threw a nearby rope to Torrey but was pulled into
the pool, drowning as her sister, Yakyria Mitchell, 9, helplessly
watched, according to family.

“Ya’Mesha couldn’t just leave that
boy in there to drown,” said Jimmy Grider, 30, explaining why Ya’Mesha
drowned. Grider is is engaged to Ya’Mesha’s mother, Youshemia Phillips,
29, 2440 Reynolds.

“She couldn’t just walk away,” Grider said.

Grider
— who has been in the little girl’s life since she was an infant — said
both bodies were lost in the dirty, murky pool water, making rescue
efforts nearly impossible. The two were notified of the accident by a
frantic Yakyria who ran a couple blocks from the scene to her mother’s
home, screaming.

Police and rescue personnel arrived to the scene
around 12:30 p.m. after neighbors and passerbys had tried to assist.

Yakyria
had first attempted to get both kids out of the pool herself, said
Phillips.

“She tried to help (Torrey) out first, and then her
little sister, but she couldn’t survive in there by herself,” Phillips
said.

Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-MillsJimmy Grider, 30, wipes away tears as he talks about Ya' Mesha Mitchell — the little girl he thought of as a daughter. Grider is the fiancé of Mitchell's mother, Youshemia Phillips. The two children were pronounced dead at Mercy Health
Partners.

Autopsies were performed on both children Monday.
Results were not immediately known. Numerous calls to the Muskegon
Heights Police Department, which is investigating the case, were not
returned late Monday.

A Mother’s Day turns deadly

Phillips
said the three children were in the area of the pool that Sunday
because they were looking for flowers to pick for Torrey’s mother, Macca
Orr, of 2537 Wood. Orr could not be reached for comment Monday.

Phillips
said the children accessed the pool area through a small opening where
the gate to the pool was loosely tied with a rope. It was not clear
Monday whether the pool area had previously been locked, but it is
surrounded by a large fence.

“It was nothing they couldn’t
squeeze through,” Phillips said of the gap between the gate and the
rope.

The property is owned by Antonio Suhuba-Baruti, a former teacher and head football coach at Muskegon Heights High School, who said he hasn’t been to the property in two years.

Suhuba-Baruti, who works as a fitness instructor in Louisiana, said he was selling the property on land contract but the buyer got behind on payments and was evicted two weeks ago. Friends in the area told him about the drownings, he said.

“I have no idea what’s going on up there but it’s really a tragedy,” Suhuba-Baruti said. “Being a teacher, my whole life is kids.”

Ya’Mesha’s family gathered in front of the Reynolds Street home late Monday afternoon, weeping while recounting memories of the bright-eyed girl who had dreamed of one day becoming a nurse.

“She was so full of life. She would walk down the street and ask people how they were doing. Everyone loved her,” said Grider, wiping away tears while standing on the sidewalk next to Phillips.

“We nicknamed her ‘Little Mama’ because she always wanted to help everyone,” said Ya’Mesha’s mom.

Grider said he feels lucky to have known such a “special girl.”

“She was my heart. It was a privilege and honor to know her. I had never met a child like her,” he said.

He said her mother has struggled to sleep since Sunday and he too has been “haunted” by the image of the girl being taken out of the pool.

“We’re haunted that she’s gone. I think the world is missing a great person. She contributed a lot,” Grider said.

Just a couple streets away, the Days mourned, as family members scrambled to prepare funeral arrangements for Torrey.

Orr was not at her Wood Street home Monday afternoon.

Orr’s aunt, Derby Hardy, said her great-nephew was a fantastic little boy who many in the neighborhood knew by name.

“He was really friendly, free-hearted,” Hardy said. “He was a typical boy who loved to get in the dirt and play. He wasn’t one of those kids who liked to sit inside and play video games. He had imaginary friends, built forts.”

Hardy said Torrey was the middle child who had one older brother and two younger sisters. Orr is currently pregnant, Hardy said.

Like Ya’Mesha, Torrey was kind-hearted and “was always thinking of someone else.” The children have known each other since they were infants, she said.

“Everyone knew Torrey in the neighborhood. He always had something cute to say. He was a joy to be around,” Hardy said, stifling back tears. “His eyes were just gorgeous. I’m going to miss seeing him walking down the street.”

Torrey’s great-uncle, Ronald Alexander, 1472 Park, said the boy was a “very happy kid” and will be greatly missed by his family. “He loved school,” Alexander said.

Many in the Howden Street area wanted answers Monday: Who, if anyone, is to blame for the drowning of two young children?

Hardy believes the vacant home had unlocked doors and doesn’t think the rope on the gate could be considered a “lock.”

“The neighborhood is just full of kids,” Hardy said. “I just don’t understand how someone couldn’t lock the gate. The doors to the house weren’t locked. I would have spent the $5 for a lock. There have been several complaints made to the city by neighbors about that house who were afraid that something like this would happen.”

Karey Morrow Sr., the city of Muskegon Heights building inspector, could not be reached for comment Monday.

It is unclear whether any criminal charges will be filed once the investigation is over.

Charles Bryant, who lives across the street from the vacant home, at 2509 Howden, said he was alerted to Sunday’s incident when he awoke around 11 a.m. to the sound of children pounding on doors “asking for people to call the police.”

“I just don’t understand how those children got in that backyard,” Bryant said. “It was really horrible to see two children drug out of there like that. That was a wake-up call for this community.”

Bryant said the tenant at the vacant Howden home moved out two weeks ago and the grass had not been mowed, indicating to him that no one had been by the house recently.

Funeral arrangements for both victims are being handled by Fountain Funeral Home, 1765 Peck Street. Arrangements were pending late Monday.